EXCLUSIVE: Chelsea Handler admits she has body dysmorphia

Julie Sprankles is a freelance writer living in the storied city of Charleston, SC. When she isn't slinging sass for SheKnows, she enjoys watching campy SyFy creature features (Pirahnaconda, anyone?), trolling the internet for dance work...

"We all have it"

Chelsea Handler's unique breed of humor is irreverent and often inappropriate, but also downright hilarious. We got the funny lady to get serious (sort of) with us for a sec on the subject of fat shaming and why it's not OK.

Few things are off limits to Chelsea Handler. (Have you watched Chelsea Lately?) Still, the hilarious lady of late night — and our February Girl Crush — does have some boundaries.

When asked about fat shaming, the increasingly common act of discriminating against or making fun of someone because of their weight, Handler reigned in her trademark humor to address the issue.

"Well, that's not good," she says. "You shouldn't be telling someone they're fat. Usually if somebody's fat they know it about themselves, so you don't have to alert them to it. I mean, if somebody's overweight, they're already thinking about it."

Handler believes this hyper-awareness of weight is part of a larger (no pun intended) problem: the way women view themselves.

"I mean, people who aren't fat think they're fat — myself included," she observes. "I have body dysmorphia... we all have it."

So what about all of the fat-shaming remarks making the rounds online? Handler, who doesn't bother reading it, thinks such negativity is pretty bogus.

"If you're going to be spending your time on social media, there should be, like, three criteria," the comedienne asserts. "It should be funny, it should be inspiring or it should be supportive. It shouldn't be like, 'Oh, you're fat,' 'you're ugly,' 'you looked old in that.'"

Rather, Handler thinks that — much like the old adage — if you don't have anything nice to say, you shouldn't say anything at all.

"You're supposed to go look at a picture and be like, 'Oh, she looks good!' and if she doesn't, shut your mouth and then go on to the next picture. If that's what gets you going — to go online and look at all that stuff — then just don't comment on it, because that says more about your own life than the other person that you're commenting on."

Of course, Handler's thoughts on the matter are her own... which means some of her commentary isn't what you might call politically correct.

"When you're talking about somebody who's not fat who looks fat, it's mean," she says, breaking it down for us. "If somebody's just fat — like who's a good fat person? Like Honey Boo Boo's mother! — she’s a fata** and that's OK, because she's fat and it's out there. She knows she's a big fat person. If you're saying somebody 'looks' fat… just shut up."

Unfortunately, as Handler points out, fat shaming has been going on for years and years (or "since the beginning of time," she postures) and isn't likely to end soon. But, hey, at least we know where Handler stands on the matter.